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RALEIGH, N.C. The No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team completed its third consecutive undefeated ACC regular season with a 6-1 victory over No. 51 NC State Saturday afternoon at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis center. The Cavaliers, who have gone through the league undefeated in four of the past five years, improve to 26-0 and 11-0 in the conference, while the Wolfpack falls to 9-14 overall and 3-8 in the ACC.
The Cavaliers took the 1-0 lead by sweeping the three doubles matches. Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Drew Courtney (Clifton, Va.) scored an 8-4 win over Rob Lowe and Julian Sullivan at No. 3 doubles. Sanam Singh (Chandigarh, India) and Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) defeated Justin Jendruch and Jaime Pulgar 8-2 at No. 2 doubles. Michael Shabaz (Fairfaz, Va.) and Dominic Inglot (London, England) completed the sweep with a tiebreaker win at No. 1 over Jay Weinacker and Christian Welte. With the three wins, the Cavaliers complete the ACC season with a 29-4 doubles record.
Virginia extended its lead to 2-0 early in singles play as Singer cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Akash Gujarti at No. 6 singles. After NC State drew to 2-1 with Weinacker’s win over Inglot at No. 1 singles, the Cavaliers got wins from Shabaz and Courtney at No. 3 and No. 5 singles to clinch the win. Singh and Barrick later added wins for Virginia to make the final score 6-1.
The win was Virginia’s 41st consecutive win over an ACC opponent (regular season and tournament). The victory also gave the Cavaliers their second consecutive undefeated regular season.
“I am so proud of this team,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “To go through the regular season undefeated, especially with the strength of the ACC and our non-conference schedule, is a tremendous accomplishment. But we know that the hard work is ahead of us, starting next week at the ACC Tournament. I am confident that our best tennis is also in front of us.”
The Cavaliers will head to Cary, N.C. next week for the ACC Tournament. Virginia will be the top seed and is looking for its third consecutive title and its fifth title in the past six years.
No. 1 Virginia 6, No. 51 NC State 1
Doubles
1. #14 Inglot/Shabaz (UVa) def. Weinacker/Welte (NCSU) 9-8(3)
2. #6 Barrick/Singh (UVa) def. Jendruch/Pulgar (NCSU) 8-2
3. Singer/Courtney (UVa) def. Lowe/Sullivan (NCSU) 8-4
Singles
1. #36 Jay Weinacker (NCSU) def. #17 Dominic Inglot (UVa) 6-1, 6-4
2. #25 Sanam Singh (UVa) def. #118 Christian Welte (NCSU) 7-5, 6-0
3. #20 Michael Shabaz (UVa) def. Derek Stephens (NCSU) 6-2, 6-3
4. #73 Houston Barrick (UVa) def. Jaime Pulgar (NCSU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-0
5. Drew Courtney (UVa) def. Julian Sullivan (NCSU) 6-1, 7-6 (1)
6. #82 Lee Singer (UVa) def. Akash Gujarati (NCSU) 6-0, 6-0
Order of Finish
Doubles: 3,2,1
Singles: 6,1,3,5,2,4